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Introduction: South Africa has the highest ambient air pollution exposure associated with morbidity in the Sub-Saharan region, accounting for a total number of 14356 confirmed cases of mortality on an annual basis. The study assessed air pollution exposure levels of Khayelitsha and Marconi-Beam neighbourhoods that are not monitored by the fixed-site monitoring station provided by the government. Materials and methods: Weekly ambient air pollution measurements of Particulate Matter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) were collected at households in neighbourhoods of Khayelitsha and Marconi-Beam during the summer and winter seasons. PM2.5 measurements were collected using Mesa Labs GK2.05 (KTL) cyclone attached to a GilAir Plus air sampling pump. Gases of NO2 were measured using passive diffusive samplers. Data were recorded on a Microsoft Excel 2016 spreadsheet. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 28.0. The outcome of the seasonal exposure levels will be compared with the South African ambient air quality standards to ascertain the risk of potential exposure to significant levels of PM2.5 and NO2 that are hazardous to human health. Results: The results suggest that summer NO2 concentrations in the Khayelitsha neighbourhood ranged between (0 and 28 µg/m3 ), while in winter NO2 concentrations nearly doubled. A similar trend was observed regarding PM2.5 behaviour with summer overall exposure level of 7 µg/m3 and 13 µg/m3 during winter. Conclusion: Whilst there are no legislative guidelines to compare the measured weekly average results, the concentrations were still lower than the World Health Organization (WHO), and South African air quality standards values for PM2.5 and NO2 pollutants.

Aviation is a basic necessity of our world, but its contribution to air pollution is considered significant. In this paper, the contribution of air traffic to air pollution levels in the area of the three larger airports of Greece is examined through the use of EDMS (Emission and Dispersion Modeling System), a regulatory model proposed by the US EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency). To ensure a better understanding of air traffic contribution to air quality levels, the hourly aircraft movements along with the corresponding meteorological data for a whole year, 2009, were taken into account. During this year, air traffic peaked both in Greece as a total and in each of the three airports of this work. Airport emissions calculated by EDMS are found to be in good agreement with emissions monitored at Athens International Airport as well as with emission results and published data for International Zurich Airport. Concentration results have shown that PM10 and SO2 concentrations are well below the limit values, whereas NO2 concentrations exceeding limit value are expected in small areas under specific circumstances, when heavy air traffic coincides with meteorological conditions favoring air pollutant accumulation. Finally, the comparison of computational results with monitoring air quality data shows a good agreement, if other sources of air pollution are excluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]